MALEČKOVÁ, JITKA. “THE TURK” IN THE CZECH IMAGINATION, BRILL RODOPI, LEIDEN-BOSTON, 2021. ISBN: 978-90-04-44079-1, S. 240.

One of the nations perceiving the Ottoman-Turkish image as ‘other’ is the Czechs. The perception of images of the ‘other’ in Western eyes is more related to ‘collective memory’. This is one of the main problematics of Malečková's study, which seeks to explore the uniqueness of the Czechs' own orientalist perspectives on the Ottoman-Turkish image in comparison to other tribes in Europe. The adventure of the book, which consists of four chapters, concentrates on explaining the main motifs in the interaction of the two nations, which have transitioned from empire to nation-state, with each other through the theory of imagology. The continuity in the images of the ‘other’ in Czech-Turkish relations is noteworthy for the timeliness of the study. Malečková has associated the Ottoman-Turkish image in European and Czech eyes in particular with ‘Christian hostility’. Malečková identifies that the stereotypes about the Middle East have formed a perception of ‘Turk=Muslim, Muslim=Turk’ and that this attitude is applied even to Slavic Muslims. Another important contribution of the book to the literature is the history of how Orientalism and Orientalist studies were problematised from the Western perspective and according to which criteria their arguments were determined. In the Czech imagination, the Ottoman-Turkish imaginary has positive and negative correspondences. Political tensions between the two nations, cooperation and travelling for various purposes paved the way for the formation of images. This ground has led the Czechs to reveal their collective memory of ethnic nations. In the light of this context, the main argument of the study is to discuss and problematise whether the Czechs have a ‘Turk’ of their own.